1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device and a method for giving importance information to an important section according to a video operation history.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently in an editing process of producing the program, a preview is performed to confirm whether a cut section available for the program exists in the picked up video through the user's viewing action, that is, the video operation such as fast forwarding, rewinding, and replaying. In the case where plural cut sections are contained in the video image, the video operations for “searching the desired video section”, and “viewing the searched video section” are repeatedly performed. A series of video viewing action from operations to start “searching the desired video section” and “viewing the searched video section” to those to stop viewing the video will be referred to as a single preview.
The editing process may be roughly divided into two steps, that is, a rough edit step and a main edit step. In the rough edit step, the preview for confirming the cut section usable for the program is performed. In the main edit step, the cut section confirmed in the rough edit step is located to perform editing, for example, connecting the cut sections. The use of the two-stage edit process allows the program to be efficiently produced by performing the rough edit step with respect to the video image which has been picked up in advance, and then performing the main edit step upon completion of all the picked up images. In the rough edit step, In/Out points of the searched “cut section” are recorded by taking memos such that the video points of the “cut section” in the video image may be efficiently used for the main process. In the main edit step, the cue of the “cut section” is performed while confirming the recorded memo, thus requiring the video operations with fast forwarding and rewinding likewise the rough edit step.
In Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-331008, the video operation history (hereinafter referred to as a preview log) using the fast forwarding, rewinding, and replaying performed by the user for viewing the video is recorded, and the importance information is given to the section determined as being important according to the preview log. In Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-331008, the high importance information is given to all the replay section contained in the preview log where the video is replayed, which may be estimated to be the “section thoroughly viewed by the user”. The higher importance information is given to the section where the video is repeatedly replayed or the video is rewound to be viewed again, which may be estimated to be the “section the user especially is interested in” such that the importance information is widely ranged depending on the feature of the operation. As the importance information is given to the video replay section considered to be important according to the preview log, and managed, the retrieving and editing of the important cut sections contained in the video may be efficiently performed.
The user's video viewing action (hereinafter referred to as preview) is formed of two types of video operations for the purpose of “searching the desired video section” and “viewing the searched video section”. The video replay during the preview is performed for “confirming the current position for searching the desired section”, or for “thoroughly viewing the searched video section”. The video replay for “confirming the current position in the course of searching the desired image section” is less important because the producer of the program is not interested in such replay section, from a viewpoint of videos to be used in the program by the producer. In Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-331008, all the video replay sections are considered as those “thoroughly viewed” by the user. Accordingly, high importance information is given to the less important video replay section viewed for “confirming the current position while searching the desired video section” (see FIG. 29). Especially the section where the aforementioned video replay is repeatedly performed, or rewound to replay the video again may be considered as being the one in which “the viewer gets interested”. Then the higher importance information may be given to such section. Accordingly, the high importance information is unnecessarily given to the replay section with less important, thus deteriorating efficiency for retrieving and editing the important cut section contained in the video image.